BRITISH PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK

There were fine performances over both distances at Monmore on Saturday. While acknowledging the 28.11 from Signet Ace, we have to give the edge to Blueberry Bullet who beat Cold As Ice by nearly four lengths in 37.72 – the fastest 630 of the year to date.

High quality open racing returned to Sheffield on Saturday with the star of the night being Henlow raider Heathlawn Lemon. Jason Bloomfield’s runner who has come from last to first in A2, stepped up in trip and clocked a very decent 38.92 for the 660m. To put the run into perspective, the only two hounds who went quicker last year were Roxholme Kristof (38.57) and Roman Empire (38.58). (Okay it’s just over four lengths, but we are talking Roxholme Kristof and Roman Empire!!) Roll on the Gain Nutrition ‘Three Steps’.

Churchill Holly has been the fastest hound at Nottingham in recent weeks and looked well on her way to another nomination when clocking 28.67 for the 480 course on Monday. That was toppled on the same card when Juvenile Classic winner Anynamewilldo clocked 28.63. Incredibly, that too was outshone by another Henlow runner, Keith Robins’ even younger pup Sharkys Jezabelle (a 35kg bruiser despite his name) who kept an unblemished record from three races with a 28.58 (+30) return.

Newcastle staged a series of opens on Wednesday though in all honesty, they weren’t necessarily an upgrade on the top heat runners. So, Gartcloss Dakota was regularly among the Pelaw Grange nominations before a track switch. He has now won three of this last four including a decent A1 in 28.67.

Doncaster also staged a couple of opens though they weren’t the best races of the week either. The fastest run was Head Iton Lennie’s (hand timed) 29.90 in A2. But we’d rather give the nomination to the 29.91 A1 winner Springwell Fixer who beat a field that included reigning champ Ballymac Rocker and the prolific Kilara Lark and Ballymac Sirocco. Fixer completed a 1,034-1 four-timer with the biggest winning distance being half a length and included two short heads.

Harlow staged some minor opens on Wednesday. No startling performances but a change of scenery for a lot of Romford and Crayford graders. The best run though probably came from locally trained Lemming Devon with a calculated 26.16.

In terms of times, it was another quiet week at Romford but credit to Nathan Hunt’s S1 regular Florican Trend who is in the best form of her career.

When last week’s POW clock is bettered by four lengths, you can be reasonably sure of the outcome. Blue Tick Delia finally repeated her 40.66 Yarmouth form in S2 at Crayford and clocked the joint seventh fastest time of the year.

The Perry Barr call was hard to make when within an hour there were wins in 28.88 (A4) and 28.89 (A1 & A2) on Thursday. Thankfully a superb sprint by Our Boy Seamus made the decision a great deal easier.

There were nine A1s at Hove last week who performances should be judged against a variety of different going allowances. We’ll just edge it to the quickest, Smoking Bomber who did the business in his fourth outing at the track.

Sunderland also staged a string of A1 races but on the clock nothing came close to A3 winner and serial improver Dapper Dalia with a 27.28 run.

Yarmouth’s top heat runners will be staking their claims for a place in the forthcoming 75^th East Anglian Derby first round. Offshore Roddick has presumably done enough. He ran twice last week clocking the fifth fastest 462 of the year on Monday and then dead-heating in another A1 on Saturday.

With only 10 races per week, Pelaw can only manage one A1, but fittingly it was also the fastest time of the week and a 26.00 run for Marinas Artist.

Nothing above A3 for Kinsley this week meaning the focus switches back to the sprinters and the prolific Brosna Blonde – her 20^th win in just 47 races.

The elite group were also missing at Henlow this week. No better opportunity then to concentrate on veteran Layton Shrek with a flashy 33.30 (-30) run over the 550m course to complete a dual distance A1/S1 four timer.

Central Park didn’t seem to miss their Sunday opens with two A1 events dominating racing. Deadly Doughnut (29.21) continued his impressive spell but was overshadowed by a 29.01 (-20) run from Borna Haka.

Sunday’s open race action came from Towcester and Swindon. Sussex Cup winner Drumcrow Brent (29.64) was on the mark again at thte Derby venue, but was outshone by puppy Savana Poncho (29.59) and the Exceptional Cup winner Detroit who took his course record to 7:12 with a 29.48 run.

Swindon introduced their new 250m and 670m distances. It is obviously hard to gauge times, but when did Southfield Code ever produce anything other than a top class performance? 42.06 will do as an early benchmark